Rising Star

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By Todd Curran

Calgary's Country 105 radio station went on a quest for Calgary's hottest, newest country music talent and found it in local singer / songwriter Tanya Ryan.

Open auditions for Lammle's Rising Star Contest were held on March 5th, and after weeks of competition, six finalists performed at the Rising Star Finals in a musical mêlée for $10,000 in cash and prizes. Tanya Ryan, who plucked, sang and twanged like a seasoned star, was voted the 2011 Rising Star winner and might be country music's next big thang.

After making the grade in live auditions, performers strutted their stuff on Ranchman's stage with judges culling the herd down to six finalists who would duel for the top spot on April 28th. “I went in just feeling lucky to be there,” says 23 year-old Tanya. “We performed two originals and one cover, but were up against some awesome performers. One girl even had a six piece band, but we had fun and got down to it.”

Tanya got down to it all right, winning the grand prize of $5,000, a new guitar and 8 hours of recording time. “I just wanted to be happy that I did the best I could,” she says. “But then they said my name and I freaked! It was pretty crazy but really cool.”

“I was on the phone with a producer today and talked to him about a six song EP that I want to release,” Tanya says, already knowing how she's going to spend her prize money. “I'm researching producers in Nashville and Calgary to see what feels right and what I can manage to create with the money.”